Wednesday, 29 August 2012

Check out the new Viking Series 400 Gallery in the Image Archive & Other Pages section. Many thanks to the intrepid Tim Martin in Victoria for his photo work, which has made it possible to put the gallery together.

The registration sequences are shown with each serial number that has been either officially registered and/or painted on the aircraft.

If anyone has any contributions for some of the gaps, they would be much appreciated!

In the six months since beginning TwinOtterSpotter there has
been a consistent increase in regular readers – certainly helped to a great
degree by our partnership with DHC-2.com and TwinOtterArchive.com . While the bulk
of our readership is strongly North American, there are daily regular visitors
from most every corner of the globe.

One area where we could all benefit is by an increased amount
of contribution from the readers. Currently a lot of our content comes from
regulatory sources and publications, and various flight tracking programs.
Additionally, each day I do a broad sweep through about 50 web sources,
including other blogs looking for changes around the world.

How can you help?The first
thing is don’t get hung up on whether something is “newsworthy” – if I’ve
learned anything in the last six months, it is that a report or photograph of a
seemingly common Twin Otter can often answer long standing mysteries. Aircraft
that have been “off the radar” for months or even years often pop up in regular
everyday type reports.

I’d be happy to receive any Twin Otter sighting
reports – I can easily sift through the content for anything that is
noteworthy. The same applies for photographs as well – although I can’t
guarantee that every photo contribution will be published, photos are
invaluable in helping understand an aircraft or operator history. My only
request is that if you would like to see it published it should ideally be a
size of about 1024 pixels width or larger. Photos will always be credited in
the manner requested by the contributor, and can be linked to a location of the
contributors choice. Any photo can also be contributed anonymously as well – as
long as you hold the rights to the photo.

There are many geographical areas where there are
considerable Twin Otter operations, but not always a lot of information –
Africa and South America in general, The Maldives, Nepal, Papua New Guinea
& Indonesia specifically. Any information, sightings or photographs from
these regions would be great. Here in North America any reports and/or
photographs from the following locations in particular would be helpful:

·Calgary-International,
AB (CYYC) and Calgary-Springbank, AB (CYBW)

·French
Valley Airport, Murietta, CA (F70)

·West
Georgia Regional Airport, Carrollton, GA (KCTJ)

·Rutherford
County Airport, Rutherfordton, NC (KFQD)

·Atlanta
Southern Regional Airport, Hampton, GA (4A7)

Internationally:

·Altenrhein-Saint
Gallen Airport, Switzerland (LSZR)

·Malta
International Airport, (LMML)

Lastly, the blog has received quite a number of regular
visitors associated with the sport of Skydiving. Although the number of Twin
Otters used for skydiving purposes has seemingly reached a plateau, due to lack
of available used airframes, the existing fleet is constantly changing.

These aircraft are notoriously difficult to keep track of – any
sightings (and photographs) at all are welcome. Just a simple report of what
was seen at Deland, Zephyrhills, Cross Keys or Eloy allows us to keep accurate
histories of the aircraft.

All contributions can be sent to the e-mail address in the
left column of the blog. Anyone is welcome to contribute anonymously if
preferred. Suggestions on things you’d like to see on the blog are also welcome,
however please be aware that it must remain non-commercial.

Flew Glasgow, UK (EGPF) - Stavanger, Norway (ENZV) - Reykjavik, Iceland (BIRK) 29-Aug-2012. The aircraft has been based abroad operating for ARKeX on geological survey work, so it would appear to be on it's return journey to the U.S.

﻿

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281 - DHC-6-300 F-OIJL ?

Flew Tallard-Gap, France (LFNA) - Hurghada, Egypt (HEGN) 29-Aug-2012. Not exactly clear who currently operates this aircraft; it has been in an all white scheme since at least 2010 and has spent a considerable amount of time sitting in Switzerland.

406 - DHC-6-300 N171GC Cortez Fisher LLC, Kirkland, WA

Flew Del Rio, TX (KDRT) - Brownsville, TX (KBRO) 29-Aug-2012 using it's registration as the callsign, then in Brownsville it is filed to become SXA943 before continuing on to Veracruz, VZ (MMVR)

N171GC can be seen below at Boulder, Nevada in 2010. It later shed the Grand Canyon markings for an all white scheme.

Nominal change to PAL Airlines Ltd., St. John's, NF 22-Aug-2012. The report actually indicates a cancellation of this registration 22-Aug-2012, however the register itself (as of today) shows it as current, with the revised name.

MSN 647 was built in 1979 for Pennsylvania Airlines, and went on to fly for Holiday Airlines in the U.S. and Flight West Airlines of Australia before returning to North America in February 1998. It was then operated on amphibs out of south Florida by Huizenga Holdings until being sold by CAAMS to Guatemala in 2009.

MSN 433 was built for Guyana Airways, and originally delivered in 1974. It was sold to Scenic Airlines in 1989, and transferred to Twin Otter International in 1993. Operated on lease in Fiji 1993-1995 & 1995-1997, it went to Nature Air in Costa Rica in 2002.

MSN 198, the somewhat legendary (amongst Skydivers anyway) and aptly named "Frankenotter" was built in 1968 for Imperial Oil. Following a rather devastating fire while operated by Skydive Chicago it was rebuilt by the experts at Rocky Mountain Aircraft in Springbank in 1998 and delivered to Fayard Enterprises. It shed it's unique paint job several years later, adopting the standard blue & white Fayard scheme.

Tuesday, 21 August 2012

Registered 20-Aug-2012, ex FAE-449 - given the assignment of a U.S. registration the aircraft is likely under rebuild (or has been rebuilt). Further information on the current status and location is welcome!

Delivered new to the Ecuadorian Air Force in 1986, it crashed 15 minutes after departure from Pastaza-Shell Mera Airport en route to Tena, Ecuador on 20-Jan-2011.

Image Update

Nepal Airlines DHC-6-300 9N-ABT (MSN 812) seen at Pokhara, Nepal. This aircraft was delivered new in 1984.

Nepal Airlines DHC-6-300 9N-ABQ (MSN 655) seen at Kathmandu, Nepal in Feb-2009. Delivered new in 1979 it remained idle (as seen below) for many years before being acquired and subsquently rebuilt by Tara Air in 2012. This is also the aircraft that was involved in the minor incident at Jomsom, Nepal on 19-Aug-2012 noted in the earlier blog entry.

The photo above shouldn't be construed as related to the accident involving Tara Air at Jomsom on 19-Aug-2012 (see blog entry below). More just a a coincidence of receiving a photo contribution from Nepal in the same time frame.

Tara Air did however earlier this year take over at least two former Nepal Airlines DHC-6-300's, MSN 455 9N-ABM and MSN 655 9N-ABQ, both of which had been idle at Kathmandu for over a decade.

Status Update from previous entries - it continues to fly pretty well daily from Parachutisme NouvelAir in Farnham, QC, where it had arrived on 05-May-2012.

464 - DHC-6-300 C-GPOQ Kenn Borek Air, Calgary, AB

Status Update from previous entries - the last time this aircraft was being picked up on SBS in the Montreal area was 01-Aug-2012, and about 12 hours later it was picked up again approaching Calgary. Given that, it would appear that whatever contract it had been operating since 02-Jun-2012 has now ended.

Wednesday, 8 August 2012

Another couple of nice action shots kindly contributed by Sergio Komori in Mexico, and Marseno Bremer in Saint Maarten

The Twin Otter has a long history in México dating back to 1966, and although there have never been extremely large numbers, there have always been several aircraft in service at any given time. The Mexican Attorney General's Office has operated four examples over the years.

Saint Maarten's own Winair is an omnipresent sight at Maho Beach, and can usually be counted on to demonstrate the STOL qualities of the Twin Otter to the crowds. Here we have PJ-WIS climbing off runway 28.

The Twin Otter has been the mainstay of the Winair fleet for the past 45 years.

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Contacting The Editor

Any and all editorial or photographic contributions are greatly appreciated. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. You may contact me using the "Contact the Editor" form in the right column - or - send an email to DHC6300 "at" gmail.com

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